The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: harry on July 18, 2009, 01:05:42 pm
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Anyone ever kept pheasants in a simalar way to chickens, ie if kept from day old do they domesticate more like a chicken
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The guy who comes to shoot our deer has raised phesants for release, presumably so's he can shhot them! ;) He kept them in a big 'coop' for a while then released them - they roam here there and everywhere, are nosey (and noisey) buggers, go to the big blue feeders when they're hungry and many of them return to the coop at night (even 1 year on)
These birds were raised with minimal contact so I'm assuming that if you were more hands on with them they'd become 'tame'? But I think you'd need a bigger run than you would for your average chooks if you weren't intending to free range and definately lots of vegitation, shrubs, bushes even trees if space allows.
Good luck & let us know how you get on
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thanks...yes got all that .. grass , bushes trees etc ..... thought i would like to keep them close for breeding next year, instead of trapping them.... harry
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Sounds like you're good to go then Harry ! ;D
Also meant to say the ones this guy raised weren't all your 'standard' birds, he had some fantastic coloured phesants that I'd not seen before, black ones, white ones really different to the wild ones, I had no idea there were so many variations !
If I get a chance to see him I'll try & find out where he got them and if there's anything else you need to know.
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I know of a shoot where pheasant poults are kept in an enclosed pen for about 6 weeks and then the holes in the side ( like a grid) are opened so they can go out and return. Sometimes birds( mainly hen) will still be using the pen in the following spring.
I would imagine that any raised by bantams would be tamer.
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Hi, we aquired pheasant eggs 2 weeks ago after a local farmer accidently 'combined' the mother during harvest. Realising the eggs were about to hatch we put them in the incubator and 2 hours later 15 hatched out! So far, so good, problems began almost straight away, a quick look on the internet told us that we had to teach them to eat and drink, not too bad as we do that with chicks anyway, but these did not catch on quickly, fatalities were regular, they are 2 weeks now and we are down to 6! One had an eye infection, another couple just died etc. They are more agile than chicks and need a tall box with solid sides otherwise they are off, although we got them accidently and thought 'what luck' we probably would not have pheasants again as they are quite labour intensive in the first few days.
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We bought 50 pheasants for my husband to shoot. We kept them in a wee enclosure for a week or so and then released them, but kept feeding them. They are still here 2 years later with their young and only 1 has succumbed to the bullet,not sure if OH is a crap shot or whether he actually likes them around and wanted to prove a point!!
Ours roam roughly 400 acres of pasture with some added woodland and scrub, but do come back to the feeders. Im not sure if they can be kept like chickens as they tend to get bored and can kill each other if not in a big enough area.
This is one for the poultry/gamekeepers!!
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Harry, why do you want to keep pheasants? To look at? They are pretty poor eating compared with chicken, the eggs are tasty but small and they are a bugger to keep on your land unless you know what you are doing with strategically placed feeders and cover. Or a completely enclosed pen. You can only shoot them in open season too and they are prone to quite a few diseases? Let me know what you need to know and I'll try to answer your questions